Lakers’ Pau Gasol will need All-Star help

Good news for Phil Jackson: He won’t be coaching in the All-Star game this season.

Bad news for Pau Gasol: He’ll have to impress coaches from other teams to make the Western Conference squad for the Feb. 14 game.

Jackson despises coaching in the All-Star game -- he’d rather enjoy a long weekend of rest and relaxation -- and he won’t have to worry about it this season because of an NBA rule that bans coaches from appearing in it two seasons in a row.

Gasol, however, has some work to do.

He sat out the first 11 games because of a strained hamstring and will have to beat out a crowded field of forwards to return to the game for a second consecutive season.

Denver’s Carmelo Anthony is a slam dunk to get voted into the game by fans. Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki and San Antonio’s Tim Duncan will also be there, either as the second starter or as a reserve.

It’s still early, but other possible reserve forwards are Gasol, Utah’s Carlos Boozer, Memphis’ Rudy Gay, Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire, Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge and, yes, Houston’s Trevor Ariza.

Gasol was selected to the All-Star team last season with coaches choosing the reserves. He might want to play particularly well against Denver and Phoenix. Maybe Portland and San Antonio too, just in case their staffs end up coaching the West.

“It’s definitely something that I would like to accomplish again,” Gasol said Tuesday.

Kobe Bryant is a shoo-in from the Lakers, but if Gasol makes it, will he be joined by center Andrew Bynum?

“Maybe,” Gasol said. “It would be nice if fans are voting every day to get us in. Or then, hopefully, we’ll get the coach’s vote.”

Gasol is averaging 17.7 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists in six games since returning to the lineup.

Shaw in ‘The Seat’

When Kurt Rambis took the job to coach the Minnesota Timberwolves, Jackson had a vacancy next to him on the bench.

Enter assistant coach Brian Shaw, who is literally Jackson’s right-hand man during games, though Shaw downplays his new in-game location.

“I wouldn’t make too much out of that,” he said, smiling. “Kurt sat to his right, and I sat to Kurt’s right when I sat on the bench, so with Kurt gone now, I’ve just moved over one.

“To me it doesn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m the man next to the man.’ Frank [Hamblen]’s been sitting on his left for years and years, and Jim Cleamons has been with him for years.”

The Lakers had four assistant coaches last season, so Shaw and Cleamons took turns sitting either two spots to the right of Jackson or, less desirable, in the row behind the bench. The Lakers did not fill the vacancy when Rambis left, so all three assistants now sit near Jackson.

Magic touch

Magic Johnson, who owns almost 5% of the Lakers and has made a name for himself in the commercial real estate business, was ranked No. 1 in Ebony magazine’s annual Power 150 List of top African American business leaders in the U.S.

Among his holdings, Johnson has 105 Starbucks coffeehouses and 13 24-Hour Fitness clubs. He also has a hand in a billion-dollar real estate fund that aims mainly to reinvigorate urban neighborhoods.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

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